The Niagara News is the community newspaper of Niagara College located in Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is created and produced by the students of the Niagara College Journalism program.

Pacquiao, homosexuals are not lower than animals

Celebrities have never been a group to shy away from controversial beliefs, so when Manny Pacquiao recently stated that homosexuals are lower than animals it came as a shock, with outrage pouring in from social media, the LGBT community, and fellow media personalities.

Pacquiao’s Roman Catholic background does not excuse his brutally offensive comments. Everyone has a right to believe what he or she wants, but the second it starts to infringe on another’s belief is when the damage begins.

To refer to homosexuals as lower than animals is a frightening commentary in such a progressive time but as science has begun to investigate, homosexual tendencies in animals is not only prevalent, but also valuable in providing social bonds and identity within their species.

In an article from BBC exploring homosexuality in animals, researchers identify that although animals are not inherently homosexual (sheep being the closest identifiable species) they do have homosexual tendencies that can be beneficial to their species.

For example, macaques are a species of monkey who frequently engage in female-to-female sexual activity, not for the purpose of procreation, but for simple pleasure. It’s shown that the females have more positions and stimulation opportunities with each other than with their male counterparts.

Many people believe that homosexuality in nature is damaging, due in part to the eradication of genes being passed through procreation, though it is evidently not true. The female macaques would mate with fellow females while the males “are sitting around twiddling their thumbs” (according to researcher Paul Vasey).

Many other cases in the animal kingdom show instances of homosexuality with same-sex birds often rearing a chick better than a single or heterosexual bird, or lions engaging in homosexual mating to assert dominance.

While it isn’t as common as human homosexuality, the idea that gays or lesbians are lower than animals is an utterly baseless claim.

When Pacquiao quoted 1 Corinthians 6:9, which includes lines as “sins of the flesh” and that “homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God” he absolutely demeaned what it means to be human and free.

What is more prominent than homosexuality in the animal kingdom? Violence; something boxing oozes with a sick sense of pride, with its rampant concussions and the notion that being assaulted and bludgeoned with uppercuts and hooks is entertainment.